


A flickering light at the end of a dark tunnel

by AllesandraQ



Category: The Wayhaven Chronicles (Interactive Fiction)
Genre: Ashley Kingston - Freeform, Backstory, Gen, detective reele gets one line in the book but here she gets more, rebellious youth, the 'police or jail' choice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 08:56:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29433486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllesandraQ/pseuds/AllesandraQ
Summary: Detective Victoria Reele and Ashley Kingston had a fateful run in... in more ways than one. Ashley's spiraling, and Detective Reele gives her something to hold on to.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 2





	A flickering light at the end of a dark tunnel

Detective Victoria Reele carefully walks over to the table where Ashley Kingston is sitting. It's getting easier to move now, with the walking cast off her leg. 

It's been a month since the collision she had with the young woman. She's still a little banged up, but alive. Her ribs still ache from time to time, her leg healed rather quickly, and she’s recovered from the concussion. Her arm however is still in a sling, due to being broken. But she’s alive. 

Alive, due to the actions of a young woman who, from prior incidents and run ins, was in the midst of spiraling into self destruction since she was forced to come home. The gossip was that she lost her scholarships but no one could pinpoint why, increasing her rebellious acts of troublemaking in such a way that it disturbed Victoria. 

She wished Rook was alive.. She wished Rebecca Kingston actually did some parenting, instead of only butting in during the past to make sure any charges for Ashley's troublemaking would be dropped. Perhaps the sarcastically inclined troubled young lady wouldn't be in this spot right now. 

Normally defiant, with a smirk on her face, and a taunt or comment coming soon after, Ashley Kingston sits at the table with her wrists cuffed to it, slumped in the chair, and looking very subdued. Her green eyes were dull, her red hair pulled back in a messy ponytail. An old scar, pale and thin from her right brow to the middle of her cheek sets against her tanned skin. Tanned skin that is dotted with healing cuts and bruises in various stages of color, still lingering a month after the car crash.

Miss Kingston's right leg was in a cast- it had broken in the car crash and then fractured some more due to the way she had dragged herself over to Detective Reele's flipped vehicle, tugged Reele out and performed a couple basic first aid techniques before calling for help on Reele's dispatch radio. Victoria found that out when she listened to the interviews that the on scene officers and Miss Kingston had given. 

Doctors told Victoria that Miss Kingston's actions saved her life. 

It was why Victoria Reele fought with the judge and the attorneys to make this deal. Because despite everything, the intelligent and troubled woman in front of her could have done nothing. Instead she injured herself trying to help the very woman she had hurt. 

"Hello Ashley," Detective Reele greets the young woman as she sits down, dropping the file on the table.   


Ashley glances up, her eyes dull, flicker down to the file, then she looks away as her wrists twitch in the cuffs.   


"Come to tell me what was decided?" Ashley asks, her tone sullen. "Can I get a cigarette before I find out how many years I'll be doing? Or maybe some vodka?"   


"Sorry, no cigarettes and no vodka.. Besides you know those are bad for you."

Ashley shrugs. "So is drag racing, drinking, destruction of property, vandalizing..." She snorts. "Need I go on?" 

"No," Detective Reele says softly. "I know your history quite well."

"Then out with it," she says, a flash of that familiar defiance lighting up those green eyes. 

"I think... you're going to be pleasantly surprised." Detective Reele pauses. "I'm going to offer you a deal. One that was agreed to and drawn up by all parties involved." 

Ashley's jaw tightens, defiance rears up in her eyes, not as dull as they were earlier. "I'm not--"

The Detective holds up a hand. "Just listen."

It takes a few minutes to explain. In the end, it boils down to something simple. Join the police or go to prison for up to fifteen years. It feels like Detective Reele talks forever, but really it's only for ten minutes, explaining what the deal entailed. 

Miss Kingston frowns. "Why are you offering this? You almost died." She snorts. "This is ridiculous. Let's offer the person who almost killed you a job," sarcasm drips off those words with a little bit of venom, venom directed towards herself, Victoria notes. "Like that's going to go well." 

"Yet, here I am. Alive. Due to your own actions after the fact. You could have done nothing."

Defiance fades in those green eyes, and she frowns. "I may have done a lot of things," the young woman says after a moment, "but I'd never do that."

Victoria Reele nods. "I am proof of that. Ashley, you are a crossroads right now. Your life has been one rebellious action after another, and it's gotten worse since you couldn't continue staying in school and had to come home." Anger lights up those eyes before fading after a few seconds. The wrists in those cuffs twitch, making a slight clinking sound as the metal hits the table. "That drag race you were in... the fact that you smashed head on into me, and then survived means something."

"Means my life is bloody fucking hilarious," the girl mutters. 

"It means you are meant for something else other than recklessly spiraling out of control. What would happen if you hadn't hit me? You'd be doing something else, most likely. Something else that would be reckless and eventually..."  _ Eventually getting yourself killed.  _

Ashley's eyes narrow after a moment. "Is this Rebecca's handiwork?"

Victoria Reele shakes her head. "No." They hadn't even been able to properly get ahold of Rebecca over the last month. The person she was eventually able to talk to said that Agent Kingston was in an undisclosed location overseas and wouldn't be available for, at the time of the call, three more weeks. 

Tension eases out of Ashley Kingston as if Victoria had gently cut into a hose and it started releasing air. 

"So other than wanting to save me from  _ myself, _ " Ashley asks dryly, "why are you doing this?"

"Because one good turn deserves another. Because I was given a chance to live, so therefore I want to make sure you get a chance to live as well." That seems to get her attention. Those green eyes darken a little. "Think of this as a second chance. To start over."

"In Wayhaven?" Ashley scoffs. "Where everyone still remembers what happened between Ryan Greene and Boris Trapper a hundred years ago? There's no way no one is going to forget what I've done. Especially Mrs Verrity. Or any of the others." 

Ah yes, the Verrity incident. Ashley stole her car and drove it into a ditch. When she was 15. A little over seven years now. Mrs Verritty still brings it up as if it happened yesterday. 

"They'll remember what you've done, but see what you're doing now. Ashley, you have someone right in front of you reaching out, offering you a chance to start again, to gain some stability, and to be free. Ashley, you are stuck right now in a dark tunnel of your resentment and bitterness towards certain people and events in your life. Everything you have done- it has been you trying to find a light in that dark tunnel, to give you something to hold on to and pull yourself up." 

She pauses as she sees tears build up in the cynical girl's eyes. Ashley looks away then, stiffening her bod. She instinctively tried to yank her hands away, only to hiss in pain when the cuffs kept them tightly chained to the table. The girl refuses to look at her now, holding herself stiffly. 

"This is your wake up call," Detective Reele says firmly. "This is that light in the tunnel, flickering, trying to get your attention. Trying to show you how to get out of this dark tunnel you are in. I want to help you, but I can only do that if you start walking towards that flickering light."

Ashley lets out a laugh of disbelief. "Who are you?" She asks in bewilderment, shaking her head. "What person in their right mind would offer this kind of thing to the very person that nearly--" She snorts. "It's not logical." She narrows her eyes. "You aren't logical. Especially for a cop." 

Detective Reele shrugs. "Perhaps. But then again, what person drags herself across a road with a broken leg among other various injuries, to check on the very person she smashed into and takes an effort to make sure they live? How logical is that?"

Ashley snorts. "Not very."

"Yet you did." 

Ashley goes quiet, staring at the wall. 

"So, that's the deal you're being offered. Take that light and join the police force, or... turn it away, and go to prison. Trust me, the judge really wants to make an example out of you. He'll send you there for the max allowed." 

_ Take that step towards the flickering light. Please.  _

Ashley lets out another scoff. "Fine."

"Pardon?"

"I'll do it," she growls out. "I doubt prison would agree with me anyway," She sniffs. "I'd probably wind up in solitary, pissing off who knows."

"With that mouth you have?" Detective Reele says lightly. "Oh no doubt. Probably within the first day."

Ashley smirks then, and Victoria has to resist the urge to hug the young woman. 

"So shall we tell the judge?"

The young woman's eyes glitter with evident glee. 

Oh Victoria has a feeling things will be interesting for the next few years, getting this woman to integrate into the police force. She gets up to move, heading towards the door that will lead to the judge’s chamber. 

People will tell her she was insane to offer this, that she should have let the girl suffer the consequences of her actions. Victoria has no doubt that her Captain is going to be annoyed that Ashley KIngston accepted the light that she had offered. She'll be called a soft touch, but Victoria won't care. 

All she hopes is that one day, Ashley will be able to reach out to someone like her, and give them that flickering light that they will so desperately need to follow out of the darkened tunnel they are stuck in.    
  
“By the way, that speech was ridiculously corny, you know that? I’m almost embarrassed for you.”   


Victoria smiles, but doesn’t respond, just simply opens the door. 


End file.
